from Dennis Z.
1. It's important/healthy for us to take the stance that we will dominate this year. Our training/intensity should reflect our team's confidence. This discussion should be focused towards team-mates, not competition.
2. Once the banter gets around that The Ihos and Ihas will dominate other teams will (if they are smart) use this to fire themselves up and focus their training towards beating us.
3. Point 2 may seem to counteract point 1 -- but it doesn't. The hidden variable here is fear. Teams are afraid of us and they have already begun to accept losing as a possibility. When you play in a situation like this, you need to come out hard, strong, aggressive and set a tone of dominance. In this case, the underdog team will fold. In fact, they will be happy to lose to you. It may sound strange to say, but it's true.
In my mind, we will win Open and Womens this year. Everything between now and then is training to become surgical in our execution. What does this mean for us training-wise? It means hitting the track regularly. We need to be able to grind teams into the ground with our fitness. Can you do this? Imagine an instance where you are an o-line cutter. Imagine making 5 hard 20yard cuts without pause. Imagine your defender and the sound of his breathing compared to yours. What is the difference? This is something to think about when you are at the track. It feels great to hear their asthmatic-like panting while you are still feeling energized and fast. Imagine an instance where you have a cutter wide-open on the break force side but your mark is all over you. Getting that throw to the break-force cutter would rip the field wide open and almost guarantee the score --- can you shake the defender and make the throw? This is what you should be thinking about when you are playing 3-man with your buddies. It means you need to be out throwing 5x/week. It means you need to commit to a full line-up of practices.
Lets start preparing ourselves mentally and physically to dominate this year.
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